Do you remember the world’s very first nuclear meltdown? That time the US President, an expert in nuclear physics, heroically lowered himself into the reactor and saved Ottawa, Canada’s capital?
Sounds like schlocky action movie, but it actually happened!
Sounds like schlocky action movie, but it actually happened!
Read more here:
cnn.com/2011/OPINION/0…
cnn.com/2011/OPINION/0…
Oh boy, it gets even weirder! Here is an SNL sketch from 1979 where President Carter goes into a nuclear reactor after an accident. He’s played by none other than Dan Aykroyd…
…a Canadian from Ottawa!
h/t to @QuantumAephraim
facebook.com/watch/?v=53385…
…a Canadian from Ottawa!
h/t to @QuantumAephraim
facebook.com/watch/?v=53385…
Chalk River had supplied plutonium for the Manhattan project (the atomic bomb). And, it had been testing the first nuclear submarine engines for the US. Carter had just been made an officer in the US Nuclear Sub program when the accident happened.
Chalk River was the second nuclear reactor in the world (after the ZEEP reactor in Chicago). More history here: torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/local-history-…
And a fun vintage video trumpeting the Chalk River reactor:
I learned this crazy story just yesterday from the amazing folks at the Historical Society of Ottawa.
historicalsocietyottawa.ca
historicalsocietyottawa.ca
Some of the references I linked to had some technical facts wrong. 1. ZEEP was the the reactor at Chalk River, not Chicago. It was the first reactor outside the US, not 2nd in the world. 2. Chalk River supplied polonium not plutonium during the war. Here are the real experts:
https://twitter.com/nuclearkatie/status/1471477749848186883
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